‘I WAS IN SHEER PANIC’
B.C. family recounts quake ordeal
LOMBOK, INDONESIA • What was supposed to be a bucket-list family trip after her daughter was diagnosed with brain cancer turned into a harrowing tale of survival mode as a powerful earthquake hit Indonesia leaving the family stuck on a popular tourist island, said a British Columbia woman.
Jennifer MontgomeryLay, of Maple Ridge, B.C., said that she, her husband, 14-year-old son and 21-yearold daughter are stuck in Lombok after a powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit on Sunday evening.
“I was in sheer panic, we all were,” Montgomery-Lay, 41, said on Monday from her hotel, adding that she and her family were not injured.
“We cried. It was all very stressful. But to see the aftermath today is heart breaking (as) 16 hotel staff have lost their homes.”
The earthquake, which was also felt in the neighbouring island of Bali, flattened houses, caused bridges to collapse and killed at least 98 people. National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told The Associated Press that the damage was “massive” in northern Lombok, where the quake was centred, and that more than half the homes were destroyed or severely damaged.
Nugroho said the death toll will increase and that more than 230 people were seriously injured. This was the second deadly quake in a week to strike Lombok. On July 29, another quake left 16 people dead.
Montgomery-Lay said she and her family have travelled to more than 20 countries after her daughter was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2005 and she’s been battling it ever since. MontgomeryLay started a blog titled “Life All Over the Map” to document her daughter’s treatment and the family’s travels.
“We live in uncertainty every single day, but we also know how lucky we are to be granted borrowed time and we don’t want to waste one single second,” wrote Montgomery-Lay on the blog’s home page.
Montgomery-Lay said the family has been vacationing in Indonesia for about a month, and that they were in Bali during last week’s quake and they felt the ground shaking. On Sunday evening, the family had just gotten back to their hotel after dinner and Montgomery-Lay said she was about to organize her daughter’s medication when the family experienced the powerful earthquake.
“(It) was mayhem,” she said. “Shaking. Parts of the building crumbling. Glass shattering. It started slow but amped up very quickly.”
There are 2,221 Canadian registrants abroad in Indonesia and 480 registered in Bali, said Elizabeth Reid, spokeswoman for Global Affairs Canada. She said as of Monday afternoon, the agency has no indication of Canadians being killed or injured in the earthquake.